Saturday marked the 100th anniversary of the San Siro's inaugural match, a stadium with so much history. Yet after Wednesday's shameful display in the Europa League, it is hard to imagine a Milan that will be able to honor such an occasion. Particularly when facing Lecce, a team that finished 17th last season, narrowly avoiding the drop, since smaller teams have been Milan's Kryptonite in recent years. Amorim came under fire this week for increasingly poor performances which coincided with his increasing number of changes to his starting 11 each match. Which means the pressure is on for him to win this one or risk negatively changing history.
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| Rewriting the history of Milan and the San Siro for the worse. |
After being appointed manager last year, Eusebio Di Francesco was able to keep his job when Lecce managed to pull out of the multi-team battle to avoid relegation. Di Francesco's Lecce side come into this match with two wins and two losses, therefore sit 12th on the table. Their most recent match was a 3-2 win over Monza last week. For that match, Di Francesco lined up a 4-3-3 with: Falcone; Veiga, Siebert, Tiago Gabriel, Gallo; Lassane Coulibaly, Ilić, Maleh; N'Dri, Stulić, and Almada Monteiro. He will be missing Berisha, Gandelman, and Geubbels to injury. Camarda will likely have a nice reunion with his manager and teammates of the club he was on loan to last year.
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| Lecce celebrate avoiding relegation (and yes, that is Camarda in there.) |
For Amorim, everyone will be watching for his starting 11, particularly after his press conference drama on Saturday. When asked about his lineups, he turned the question back to the journalist as to who he would line up. He pointed out the hypocrisy in that the media will criticize a player one week, then beg for them to start the next. It was pretty delicious, except that Amorim was deflecting from the very real problem of his lineups and substitutions.
Speaking of lineups, while it is rumored that Pulisic may get his first start of the season, it is also rumored that Amorim is going to line up Estupiñan. Again. Like he saw the match last week, right? I would play someone out of position or line up on 10 men before I would put him in as a starter again. And he does not even need to play anyone out of position. He has Moreira, Bartesaghi, or even Saelemaekers who could all easily play there. And this week, of all weeks, just before the long international break and while they are celebrating the 100th anniversary of the San Siro. Does he really want to be in the press again for all the wrong reasons? Or worse, in the history books?
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| After last week, no one wants to see Estupiñan in a Milan jersey ever again. |
The one who absolutely will be in the history books for all the wrong reasons is Gerald Cardinale. He has taken his orange buddy's MAGA theory of taking something that is thriving and systematically destroying it and robbing it of its core values and essence while claiming to "make it great again." Like he literally brags about "changing the culture" of the club. You know, the one he bought that had just won Serie A and has since made history for all the wrong reasons?
We all knew it would be horrible when he casually sacked Maldini three years ago. But it was difficult to imagine a Milan like this, with no one in management with any real football background, and nothing left of the amazing Milan DNA and culture that shaped this proud club's history. It's amazing the San Siro doesn't just implode when our deadbeat dad owner comes to matches, like he will be there again on Sunday.
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| Press Conference drama is entertaining, but what we really want is results, Mister. |
This team have a chance at not being yet another blight on the club's increasingly embarrassing history on Sunday. But they will need to be disciplined, and potentially fight against their own teammates that Amorim seems hell bent on lining up in spite of their obvious inadequacies. They can help celebrate the centennial of the San Siro with three points, or they can forever mar it with something less. Not to mention being the toxic Italian media's entire story for the next three weeks of the international break. This isn't just another match, it's about changing history.
This post inspired by the music of The Primitives' "Way Behind Me"
Sunday, September 20 • 11:00 CEST (5 am EDT)
This match is not being televised in the U.S.
Villa Valle vs. Milan Futuro
Sunday, September 20 • 15:00 CEST (9am EDT)
Sunday, September 20 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)
Reviewed by Elaine
on
Rating:
